between
by dockralie
Summary: he was bound to discover him eventually. it wasn't like Alex was a master of stealth, anyway ; pre-#66 ; jay/alex ; the first in a four part series


Maybe if he'd chosen to wear a mask, as his paranoid mind had told him to, Alex would not have been so easily caught. He would have dashed away the moment Jay caught sight of him, and Jay would have posted the video on YouTube and claimed it was another masked monster like Tim or the hooded person that had been assigned to follow him. But no, Alex was feeling extra daring, and he decided that wearing a mask would stir up trouble and his… _operator_ did not need. Thus, going as plain old Alex Kralie and ultimately stalking Jay turned out to be a regular thing.

This carried on for a good three months before he was caught. In fact, Alex was so surprised that Jay hadn't caught him yet that he got braver and braver in his endeavors. Of course, Jay had never been the brightest crayon in the box, but the way he was always swinging that Sony handcam everywhere, he was bound to catch his old friend in one of the corners of the frames. However, after three months, Alex was pretty proud of himself. He'd done good. He was better at this stealth thing than he thought he was.

Then again, he was bound to catch him sooner or later. It wasn't like Alex was a master of stealth, anyway.

The sun was setting, and Jay was lost. Alex was always one step behind Jay, disappearing when he turned around to see if anyone was following him, and then reappearing when Jay continued down the path. He'd scrambled too far into the woods in the effort to find the cabin he and Tim had woken up in, as he narrated to the camera he always held in his hand, and had lost his way. Alex almost snorted aloud when he recalled his very own words to Jay a year or so ago; _you got lost in woods you've never been in?_

Of course, Jay had been in Rosswood since then. He'd experienced wonderful encounters with Him, and Alex, and the hooded person, and the masked person, and even his own twisted mind. And yet, Rosswood was huge, and Jay had not been through all of it. Alex doubted even he had seen every inch of the terrifying place, and he'd been exploring for a long, _long_ time.

Jay turned an abrupt corner, and Alex pressed his back against the tree. His weather, blue striped hoody protected his back from receiving the brunt of the twigs and bark from the tree, but that didn't stop a particularly protruding branch from sticking him in the back. He grunted in pain, biting down on his lip and squeezing his eyes shut. Come on, Kralie, you've faced worse than a freaking tree branch.

When Alex peered out to see which way Jay had taken, he found him gone.

His next actions were stupid; he knew that now. He stepped out from his hiding place instead of waiting it out to see of Jay appeared again, turning his head from side to side and peering through the trees. He was accustomed to the dark now, for he found himself living in it constantly, so he had no problem looking through the trees and finding nothing. Was there a turn that he had not memorized somewhere around here? A path that Jay took that he didn't know about—

"_Alex_."

The blood froze in his veins, and he turned in an unbelievably calm manner towards the man he'd been following just a moment ago. Jay was standing in a weak, terrified stance, his knees quaking and his fingers tightening to the point of knuckles whitening on his camera. No doubt his presence had been a surprise, and because of this, Alex felt one corner of his mouth tilt up, just slightly.

When his old friend said nothing, Jay began to babble angrily, as he usually did upon one of their chance encounters. "Have you been following me?" he demanded, his voice practically shaking. It was bad enough to be in Rosswood in the dark, Alex surmised, by alone with Alex and a handcam. I wonder how much you think that camera will do for you now, Jay? "I knew you'd find me eventually. What the hell _happened_ to you? I thought we were helping one another."

Alex regarded Jay's narrow eyes with ones slightly narrowed as well. "Things don't always work out that way in the real world, Jay," he replied smoothly, as though this were exactly what he was expecting to happen, when it was, in fact, the opposite.

"How long have you been following me?"

Alex pretended to think back when he knew exactly how long it was that he had been following Jay._Three months, one week, and three days_. "About three months. I'm surprised you hadn't noticed me before then. Well, then again, I'm not, really."

Jay physically flinched at the words. "I have Tim now. We're going to get to the bottom of this. We're going to find out what's really going on, and when we do—"

In order to taunt him a little more, Alex let out a laugh that sounded maybe a little bit too forced. "You honestly think that Tim's going to help you, Jay? He can't even help himself!"

The words were harsh, even harsher than Alex had originally intended, and Jay balled his free fist, the knuckles on that hand whitening as well. "You son of a bitch," he practically whispered, his voice hoarse with fear and anger. "I thought you wanted to help me. Help us. Turns out, you're a monster, just like… Him."

Being compared to Him should have been a compliment, really. He was terrifying, He struck fear into the hearts of even the bravest of people, and He'd ultimately brought Alex to his knees. However, this snapped something in Alex that brought him close, leaping at an inhuman speed towards Jay and pressing him against the tree with his fingers digging into the lapels of his shirt. The camera hit the ground with a plastic thud, and the look in Jay's eyes was priceless. God, how Alex wished he had a camera to capture this moment forever.

"Let me _go_!" Jay cried, struggling against his old friends grip, before realizing it was useless and squirming so that he was facing Alex. Their eyes bore into one another, and Alex saw his reflection in Jay's wide eyes; he looked intimidating, to say the least.

Alex leaned forward, so that his nose brushed the shell of Jay's ear, and he whispered in the quietest intensity, "_Hello Jaybird_."

And suddenly they were kissing; Alex had brought his head back to the front of Jay's face and pushed awkwardly past his nose. Jay had been trying to decode Alex's last message that he hadn't been expecting the kiss, and in surprise, his mouth opened in a somewhat awkward intake of air. Alex took advantage of this and smoothed his tongue along the rows of Jay's teeth, tasting him. He tasted like toothpaste and mint, and somehow, this was exactly what Alex picture him to taste like.

When Jay began to kiss back, Alex was, to say the least, impressed. He'd figured that Jay would shove him off, scream about how crazy his old friend was; but then again, perhaps Jay was just too tired to do so. Maybe he figured that giving in and giving Alex what he wanted was the best and safest option. Nonetheless, Alex smirked into the kiss, his fingernails leaving in imprint in the soft flesh of Jay's neck as they pressed through the cheap cloth.

After about two minutes, Alex slowly drew apart, satisfied by the dazed expression that stared back at him. "I'll see you soon, Jay," he said, giving the side of his neck one last, bruising kiss, and then he disappeared into the night.

Alex watched Jay run here and there and everywhere for the longest time. He wondered what he was looking for; the clearing the marked the end of Rosswood, or Alex himself.

Finally, Jay found his way to his car. Alex watched him drive away.

He went home and dreamed of future meetings.

* * *

_more mh shit. i kinda like this one. it's the first in a four part series, so hopefully i'll finish the rest soon enough to dish them out. i hope you enjoyed! this is my mh otp, so they'll probs be more jaylex (and jam eheheheeeee) that will follow these. xD_

_- doc_


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